Shmuel with his first painting

Shmuel Taurog is a dedicated young artist and teacher –sensitive to his students at a day habilitation facility for adults with developmental disabilities.Twice a week, Shmuel brings to his students, who include senior citizens, his love of art, and excitement about new art materials.He has a unique thoughtfulness about the needs of his students for whom art activities are a form of recreational therapy.

Shmuel has his own neurological challenges but Shmuel’s story is about his special abilities, not his disability.He has been able to combine his skills and enthusiasm as an artist with the knowledge and insights he has gained from his struggles with his own disability, to make him into the perfect teacher for this student population.He is kind and gentle, and very supportive, providing his students with stimulating art activities while at the same time being able to make them feel comfortable because he knows, much better than most, the problems they must deal with.

Like many artists with disabilities, Shmuel is largely self-taught.He was drawn to Pure Vision Arts, a professional studio that was established in 2002 in Manhattan’s Chelsea art district to enable people with developmental disabilities or neurological challenges to expand their creative opportunities.It provides them with materials, studio space, exhibition opportunities, and support for those who wish to pursue their art as a career.

The visual arts offer a highly enjoyable and therapeutic non-verbal form of self-expression and communication for individuals who have difficulties organizing their thoughts or ideas or who are unable to use spoken language.The creative art studio environment can also provide them with new opportunities for socialization and, as in Shmuel’s case, new careers.

His peers at the studio appreciate Shmuel’s art, which reflects imagery from his upbringing in a Chassidic family, as well as objects and activities from his daily Jewish life.They describe his art as colorful, lively, sometimes whimsical and always joyful.

“The studio is a place that is ready and open to my new ideas and where I’m able to modify and work on them.The making of art is now [an essential] part of my life.”The studio has also helped Shmuel to pursue his longtime dream of becoming a professional artist.It has included his work in many exhibitions.Some of it has been sold and is now part of numerous private collections,

Shmuel’s family has also been supportive of his involvement in art both as a form of self-expression and because the recognition he has received as a talented artist was not matched by his experiences working in an office setting.Shmuel felt that he just didn’t fit in a work environment that did not take advantage of his skills and in which his efforts were not appreciated.

That’s why when the studio told him about an opening for an art teacher at a day habilitation center, Shmuel jumped at the opportunity to finally work at a job that utilizes his artistic skills and interests.He describes it as, “a dream come true.I wasn’t sure that it was really going to happen.It’s hard to believe that I have a job in the art field.”

Now Shmuel looks forward to going to work. “I’m excited to teach,” he says, because it gives him a chance to share his creative passion and love of art with his students who, like himself, have a variety of special needs.It is not only another outlet for his artistic creativity, it allows him to enrich the lives of others in a community he understands.